Lawyers, Laws & Taxes

In 1883, poet Emma Lazarus wrote these words as part of a sonnet to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. The text of the sonnet, “The New Colossus,” is now mounted inside the pedestal’s lower level.

Their reaction was entirely predictable, once again equating “offshore” with “tax evasion,” “money laundering,” and other criminal behavior. A typical headline was “Giant Leak of Offshore Financial Records Exposes Global Array of Crime and Corruption.”

Last year, German savers with more than €100,000 in their bank accounts woke to the news that they now faced a 0.4% annual charge. Central Bankers brought in negative interest rates, and the banks helped themselves to a slice of customer savings to cover the cost. There was no warning, it happened overnight and those impacted had no recourse.

If the IRS has its way, cash will be a thing of the past. In its place, every transaction will be digital, every purchase will leave a footprint. And it will tell your story — where you go and what you buy while you are there.

“Pleading the fifth” (amendment), is such common chorus in American culture, it’s near cliché by now. We hear it on television, from every tv cop to the real-time reports on testimony from gangsters, disgraced bankers and bureaucrats alike.

Last month, lawmakers in Massachusetts approved a constitutional amendment that will lead to the departure of many of the state’s wealthiest and most productive citizens. This move is likely to cause tax revenues to drop and real estate values to collapse.

In the general scheme of manmade disasters, terrorism is trivial. That’s not even debatable, as I’ll itemize below. Westerners who’ve been consuming televised fears for 15 years straight may object, but fear has nothing to do with truth… and very much the opposite.